Hedgehog

'...Quick muscle contraction to make a spiky ball. A hedgehog can stay like that for a long time until he feels the danger is gone. '
I wonder if they sprout new and tougher spines too, after being attacked multiple times...

And all of a sudden
They were up,
Tall and toughened,
sleek and sharp.

...But I'd like to think the spines are there to defend, not attack.

They purport not to pierce,
But serve to hide
Its quivering body
And its wounded pride.

Does the predator go away indifferent, or remorseful for having inflicted emotional trauma? (The former I suppose. Predators... aren't they the unfeeling kind?)

Into the distance you slinked,
Leaving in the cold
The painful kinks
wracking its strained soul.

What's next? Recovery isn't as swift I suppose...

Still the spines remain
Atop a raw, reborn being
with the permanent taint
Of what memories bring.

But I believe that fear and pain will eventually die down. Until then, lets hope that the hedgehog finds his place among thorny bushes and unfeeling predators.